Creation Day #2 Lesson for Children’s Church

This children’s church lesson plan about Creation Day Two was first written for children age 5 – 11. It could also be used as the Bible lesson for children’s Sunday school. This lesson is part of a series of Bible lessons about creation.Be sure to consider your own ministry context and modify it as needed. Please leave any feedback or suggestions for improvement in the comment box at the bottom of this page.

Bible Story: The second day of Creation from Genesis 1:6-8

Learning Objectives: After this lesson, the children will demonstrate:

An understanding of what God created on the second day of creation . . . by making hand motions.

An understanding of Genesis 1:1-8 . . . by answering questions from the teacher.

Bible: Genesis 1:6-8. There is a detailed account of these verses below to help emphasize the importance of these few verses.

Worship

You can print off these “Creation Songs” and use to lead the children to sing before the Bible lesson.

Teaching Plan: The Second Day of Creation

Bible Lesson Introduction

**Review Creation Day #1**

Following are some questions to review what God created on the first day of Creation. The answers are in italics.

“What day of Creation was it in our lesson from last week?” One

“What did God create on the first day of creation?” heavens, earth, light

“What did God say to create light?” Let there be light.

“What shape did the earth have?” it had no shape

“What covered the earth?” the ocean

“What was the Spirit of God doing over the ocean?” hovering

“What is the difference between ‘making’ and ‘creating’?” to make something is toalready have ingredients and just putting them together and to create something means to make something out of nothing

“Did God create or make the world?” create…He didn’t have anything to start with

Bible Lesson

Have the children open their Bibles to Genesis 1:6-8. To help them find it, use the following questions. Answers in italics.

What is the first book of the Bible? Genesis

Which part of the Bible is Genesis in? Old Testament

Read Genesis 1:6-8 aloud to the children.

“God said, “Let there be a huge space between the waters. Let it separate water from water.” And that’s exactly what happened. God made the huge space between the waters. He separated the water that was under the space from the water that was above it. God called the huge space “sky.” There was evening, and there was morning. It was day two.” NIrV (New International Reader’s Version)

Discuss the Bible Reading

God said, “Let there be a huge space between the waters. Let it separate water from water.”

This is showing us the power of God speaking. He simply has to speak something into existence. He said for a huge space to be between the waters. So, up until this point everything was water. There must have not been anything but water. The earth was filled with water from top to bottom. That is something that is extremely hard to imagine. God knew that we would need air to breathe, so He made air.

And that’s exactly what happened. God made the huge space between the waters.

Notice the word “exactly” in the first sentence there. Everything happened “exactly” how God said. That is very detailed. It doesn’t say, “And that’s somewhat what happened.” No, it happened “exactly” the way God said it would. God made a huge space between the waters, exactly how He said He would.

He separated the water that was under the space from the water that was above it.

God separated the water. There wasn’t anything except water that filled the earth. God now made a space in the water. So, now there is water above and below the space. The water below the space is easy to understand because we see the water below the space now, aka the oceans, seas, etc. The water above the space is tricky. Where is the water above the space? (allow for responses) There isn’t a lake in the sky that we can’t see. The clouds are water. Rain, snow, sleet are all water that come from above the space.

God called the huge space “sky.”

God named it “sky”. That’s what we still call it. God knew that we would need to be able to call it something.

There was evening, and there was morning. It was day two.

So far, in two days, God has created the heavens, the earth, light and the sky.

Bible Lesson Activities

Use the following activities to reinforce the learning goals. If time is short, move on to the evaluation portion of the lesson plan.

Activity: Paper Plunge

“Today in our Bible Lesson, we learned that God created the sky to separate the water from below and above. The sky is air. Can air hold up water? Well, we are going to do a little experiment to see if it can.”

Fill a bowl with water.

Scrunch or crumple up a piece of paper.

Push the paper into the bottom of the glass so that it cannot fall out.

Turn the glass upside down and plunge it straight down into the bowl of water

“What happens to the paper? It stayed up inside of the glass, didn’t it? That’s the power of air. It held up this paper, just like it holds up the water in the sky. How this works is the air inside the glass takes up space and pushes. The paper stays dry because the water can only get into the glass by squashing the air inside it. Air can be squashed, or compressed, a little, but then it pushes back and prevents the water from reaching the paper. This is something you can go home and show your parents today.”

Activity: Bible Verse Memorization

“God called the huge space “sky.” There was evening, and there was morning. It was day two.” Genesis 1:3 (New International Reader’s Version)

Have the children do the following hand motions along with repeating the words after you, to help them learn the Bible Verse:

“God”—hold hand up with fingers towards the sky…the hand is raised to the heavens and then downward in a sign of respect

“called”—one hand taps a single time on the other hand to get the attention of someone

“the huge space”—place fists together away from body and, making a circular shape, bring fists together close to body

“sky”—the hand moves in an arc to indicate the sky above

“There was evening”—hold one arm horizontally in front of body, curve the other hand over that arm

“and there was morning”—hold one arm horizontally across body, stretch the other arm straight out and then bring it towards body

“It was day two.”—hold up 2 fingers

“Genesis 1”—hold up 1 finger

“3”—hold up 3 fingers

Do this a few times with the children. Make it fun for them to do the motions and say the words. Involving them in active learning is essential for memorization.

Game: Beach Ball Reciting

Have the children stand in a large circle

Hold on to a beach ball (or any other ball) while explaining the game to the children

You will pass the ball to the child standing next to you while saying the first word in the Bible Verse

That child will then say the next word in the Bible Verse while passing the ball to the child standing next to them

Keep going until the verse has been completed—Don’t forget the reference!!

Play a few times so that the children will have some good practice.

Lesson Evaluation:

Have the children stand up. Have them do the following motions:

“On the 1st day of creation God created darkness and light”
(cover eyes with hands and then release)

“On the second day of creation God created a space between the waters.”
(make waves with hands & arms & then wave up in the air)

Have the children tell (and show) a neighbor what God created on the first and second days of creation.

Have the children answer the following questions:

“What did God create on the first day of creation?” heavens, earth, light

“What did God create on the second day of creation?” the sky to separate the water

“What is the difference between ‘making’ and ‘creating’?” to make something is to already have ingredients and just putting them together and to create something means to make something out of nothing

“Did God create or make the world?” create…He didn’t have anything to start with